How can startups charge up their office culture

From the hiring processes to workplace practices, startups are looking to imbibe their culture in every stepMugdha Variyar | ET Bureau | Updated: July 22, 2016, 09:34 IST

For Aditya Das (name changed), a short stint with a multinational company was enough to push him to steer his career towards the "flatter, flexible" structure of startups. He's now convinced he will work only with startups, at least for the near future.

"There is a lot more independence and value for work at a startup than in a big corporation riddled with bureaucracy," said the 24-year-old, who worked at data analytics firm Mu Sigma and shuttle services startup ZipGo before joining social game developer Zynga.

"More importantly, the startup culture allows flexibility in work and shifts in roles, which makes for a great learning process."

This startup culture of high value work, independence and career flexibility is attracting young minds in droves, and entrepreneurs are sparing no efforts in ensuring that their employees match the personalities of their companies.

From the hiring processes to workplace practices, startups are looking to imbibe their culture in every step. Not doing so could mean even highly qualified and capable executives struggling to fit in--highly undesirable especially at times like now when a funding winter is pushing startups to the edge.

Payment services startup Instamojo does not hire employees for specific roles. "We have a system of 'pods,' which entails a small team of employees from different areas of expertise working on a common project," said Chief Executive Officer Sampad Swain. "For example, we have a team that looks at risks, and it comprises engineers, data scientists and analysts. We have seven such pods."

Potential hires are required to take a 'culture fit' test so the startup gets employees with the right attitude to match its outlook. "We look for people who are direct, confident, and almost perverse. I only like people who can argue with me and question me," said Swain.

Career flexibility that startups afford is the biggest attraction for many employees.

It is one of the most important aspects of InMobi's culture. The mobile advertising technology startup offers bridge assignments, which allow employees to modify their roles depending on their interests.

" We have a programme called 'Live Your Potential,' under which an employee can work with members of other teams to gain experience and to even make a potential move to that vertical," said Nandika Pradeep, human resources leader at InMobi. "We also make sure that all our openings are first floated internally and filled within the company to allow flexibility of movement for our employees."

In the past 18 months, more than 150 InMobi employees have taken up different roles within the organisation.

While the picture of a startup may bring to mind fancy offices with foosball tables and stocked cafeterias, values make the most important part of any startup's culture.

"We are trying to do in the furniture business what Starbucks did for coffee," he said. "We want to focus on customer experience by offering them a great digital store experience and by ensuring we translate our values to our 1,500-strong delivery staff across the country."

At InMobi, trust and openness are part of the core values. And that means keeping employees "in the loop on the company's performance, including revenues, holding regular town halls, placing zero compulsion on swiping in (attendance) and offering a flexible leave and travel policy," Pradeep said.